In general, a refrigerator is a home appliance that can store foods at low temperatures in an inside storage space shielded by a refrigerator door. In detail, the refrigerator can store the foods at an optimum state by cooling the storage space using cooling air generated through heat exchange with refrigerant changed to low temperature and low pressure conditions in cooling cycle.
The size of the refrigerator tends to increase more and more and multi-functions are provided to the refrigerator as dietary life changes and pursues high quality, and accordingly, refrigerators having various structures and convenient devices with consideration of user convenience are brought to the market.
Representative examples of the convenient devices include an ice making device for making ice and a dispenser. The ice making device and the dispenser for providing the ice or water to a user may be disposed in the refrigerator and the refrigerator door.
The ice making device generally uses a method in which water is directly filled in a tray for making the ice or a method in which the water is filled in a water supply container having water capacity for making the ice once, and then the water supply container is fitted to supply the water stored in the water supply container to the tray for making the ice.
However, in such a structure, the ice making device can make ice only once. If the water supply container having a large capacity is used, water within the water supply container is frozen due to the nature of a temperature of a freezing compartment. As a result, it is impossible to continuously perform a proper function of the ice making device.
To solve the above-described limitation, a refrigerator in which a water supply line is directly connected to a water pipe to continuously drive the ice making device, as well as the water supply is connected to the dispenser to dispense drinking water through the dispenser has been developed.
Since the refrigerator having such a structure uses the water pipe as a water source, the water supply line connected to the water pipe must be required. Thus, the refrigerator must be disposed adjacent to the water pipe, or a relative long water supply line must be provided. As a result, installation costs of the refrigerator increases, and also an installation place of the refrigerator is limited.
A refrigerator in which a water supply container is disposed in a refrigerating compartment, a water supply container and an ice tray within the refrigerating compartment are connected to a water supply pipe, and water within the water supply container is guided to the ice tray via the water supply pipe by a pump inside the water supply container is disclosed in Korean Granted Patent No. 10-0346975.
In such a structure, an auxiliary water supply container is disposed in the refrigerating compartment, and the wafer for making ice is continuously supplied into the ice tray to continuously make the ice without requiring a direct connection to a water pipe.
A refrigerator in which a mineral water bottle is seated in an upside-down to supply water into a water tank, and the water is dispensed through a dispenser communicating with the water tank to the outside is disclosed in Korean Laid-open Patent No. 10-2006-0068745.
In such a structure, the water of the bottle disposed in a refrigerator door is dispensed into the dispenser without requiring a direct connection to a water pipe. As a result, the dispenser can perform their proper function.